Giants win NFC East, knock Cowboys out of playoffs

By Tom Orsborn San Antonio Express-News

Published 5:50 pm, Sunday, January 1, 2012

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Bill Kostroun/APNew York Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (88) avoids a tackle by Dallas Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman (41) on Sunday during the second half in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won the game, 31-14. less

Bill Kostroun/APNew York Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (88) avoids a tackle by Dallas Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman (41) on Sunday during the second half in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won the ... more

Giants win NFC East, knock Cowboys out of playoffs

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Dallas Cowboys were uninspired, plagued by mistakes and physically overmatched for much of their 31-14 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday night.

In other words, it was a typical performance by the Cowboys in a winner-takes-all game.

Eli Manning passed for three touchdowns and 346 yards, and Victor Cruz had 178 receiving yards and a touchdown as the Giants (9-7) captured the NFC East title, leaving the Cowboys (8-8) out of the playoffs for a second straight year.

The Giants led 21-0 at halftime, taking advantage of the Cowboys’ sloppy tackling and ineffective offensive line. It was the same type of early performance Dallas turned in when it lost 44-6 to the Eagles in Philadelphia in another playoffs-or-bust regular-season finale.

The Eagles led 27-3 at halftime of that one. On Sunday night, the Giants went into the break with big advantages in total yards (277-96) and first downs (15-6).

Coach Jason Garrett blamed the disastrous first half on the players.

“It comes down to execution,” Garrett said. “They did a good job on offense moving the ball, both running it and throwing it. Our biggest issue on offense early on was the negative plays. They did a good job rushing the quarterback and getting some sacks. They got us out of rhythm and into some bad down-and-distance situations. ...They are a good pass rushing team, and it’s hard to get a rhythm started against a team with so many good pass rushers.”

Shaking off a bruised right hand he suffered in last week’s loss to Philadelphia, Tony Romo was 29 of 37 for 289 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

But the Giants put pressure on him throughout, finishing with six sacks, including two by end Osi Umenyiora.

“I thought he played an outstanding game,” Garrett said Romo. “He gave us a chance.”

Romo’s scoring tosses covered 34 and 6 yards and went to Laurent Robinson, with the second one pulling Dallas to within 21-14 with 10:15 left in the game.

But the Giants responded with 10 unanswered points in the final 5:45 to sweep the Cowboys for the second time in the past three seasons.

After seeing their lead shrink to 7 points, New York answered with a nine-play, 65-yard drive Lawrence Tynes capped with a 28-yard field goal. Cornerback Orlando Scandrick was burned twice during the drive, giving up receptions of 44 and 20 yards to Cruz. The 44-yarder came on third-and-7 from the New York 28 after Manning spun away from pressure.

Scandrick wasn’t the only member of the Cowboys’ secondary to suffer through a miserable outing. Terence Newman missed several tackles and got beat by Cruz for a 74-yard catch-and-run TD in the first quarter that opened the scoring. Cornerback Alan Ball botched the recovery of a muffed punt, safety Gerald Sensabaugh botched the recovery of a Giants fumble and safety Abram Elam missed a tackle in the backfield, allowing Ahmad Bradshaw to score on a 5-yard run in the second quarter.

Like Garrett, defensive coordinator Rob Ryan laid the blame at his player’s feet.

“We have to get a hell of a lot better first of all playing this defense,” Ryan said. “I thought we would do a hell of a lot better tonight than we did...You’ve got to play better than that to win championships. That’s the way it is. Going forward, we have to be better than that. We should be better than that and we will be.”

In Garrett’s first full season as head coach, the Cowboys lost four of their last five games.

“It’s absolutely disappointing, no question about that,” Garrett said when asked about the Cowboys’ late-season fade. “It’s a competitive division and a competitive league. You have to go out each and every week and find ways to win games, and we didn’t do that down the stretch. We have to find a way to fix that.”

In five of their eight losses, the Cowboys blew fourth-quarter leads. Clock-management fiascos by Garrett contributed to at least two losses, including a 37-34 defeat at the hands of the Giants on Dec. 11.

“We have to get better, and that’s what I told our team,” Garrett said. “It starts with me, our coaching staff has to get better, our players have to get better. A lot of good things happened for our team, but also a lot of disappointing things. We didn’t play consistently good enough football throughout the year. We’ll go back and evaluate that and try to get better.”